2024-05-01 06:15:43
Incredible scenes at New York’s elite Columbia University: A large police force broke into the university’s Hamilton Hall on Tuesday evening to end the pro-Palestinian and anti-Semitic protests. Hundreds of police officers flocked to the campus in northern Manhattan and cracked down: According to US broadcaster NBC, around 100 students were arrested.
The police presence is the sad climax of an escalation that had been brewing for days and finally escalated to such a degree that the university had no choice but to force the students to give up with the full force of the law.
Jewish students fear
Almost every day this week, incredible images were taken from the Columbia campus – and many other universities around the world – showing students hooded with Palestinian scarves occupying the university campus and expressing their solidarity with Gaza with anti-Semitic posters with Nazi slogans wanted to. Jewish students were terrified by the protests.
The demonstrators demanded that the university cut financial ties with Israel. The university administration refused, threatened to throw him out and finally called the police. The university management had previously published a statement: Due to the occupation of Hamilton Hall, they were left with “no choice” but to call the police. The occupied building was vandalized and a building management employee was threatened. The university also said: “We believe that the group that broke into the building is led by people who have nothing to do with the university.”
New York Mayor Eric Adams and police representatives also said: The occupation of Hamilton Hall was instigated by “external agitators”.who were not connected to Columbia and were known to law enforcement.
Columbia tried in vain to capture their students
Until the end, the elite university had tried to keep a door open for its renegade students to return home: anyone who turned away from the protests by Monday afternoon and committed themselves to the rules of the university community in the future could still complete their studies, it was said. Apparently the prospect of an elite degree was not enough for the demonstrators to end their anti-Semitic protests.
Masked and holding hands, the protesters wanted to defend themselves against the New York police. They had no chance
Scenes reminiscent of the occupation of the US Capitol in January 2021: Columbia University students on the balcony of occupied Hamilton Hall
The police enter the university building
Barricaded in the building
The occupation began at night when protesters broke windows and entered the building. In front of the eight-story neoclassical building, they blocked the entrance with tables, crossed their arms to form a human barricade and chanted anti-Semitic slogans.
Students are taken away
It is the second major police operation on campus: the New York police had already moved against the students almost two weeks ago. They criticized the approach as disproportionate, and as a result there were protests and the setting up of tent camps at dozens of universities in the USA.
The students are demanding that the university management cut ties with Israel
Dozens of students were arrested
The large police presence ended the protests
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